


Come Down From Your Fences

by CaptainLeBubbles



Series: Maybe You're Here Because You Don't Fit In Anywhere Else (Rollercoaster HSAU) [5]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 04:19:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3714778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLeBubbles/pseuds/CaptainLeBubbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Butch knows why Sarge doesn't date. He sets him up with Emily anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Come Down From Your Fences

**Author's Note:**

> I'm getting rather fond of this snapshot writing style for the side stories.

*

It's Butch who talks him into it. Butch knows why Sarge doesn't date, but, at the same time, he also knows why Sarge _should_ , at least occasionally. Sarge knows he's right, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.

“You made a promise, Sarge,” Butch says. He loops his arm through Sarge's and half-guides, half-pulls him through the museum, where they're meeting up with this doctor friend of his. “And so did I. One date a year _won't kill you_. It hasn't yet, anyway. Besides, I think you and Emily will get along swimmingly.”

Sarge sighs, and lets Butch lead him. Butch  _always_ thinks the women he sets Sarge up are perfect for him, and he has yet to be right.

*

Dr. Emily Grey turns out to be a woman in her mid-thirties, with dark curls falling from what probably started as a rather neat bun. She's certainly pretty, but there's something in her expression, in the slight tilt of her head and the way she seems to be clinging to each word they utter. He knows instantly that there is more to this woman than she seems.

The way she laughs, though. He's pretty sure that he can count all of her teeth, could do a detailed drawing of her tonsils if he wanted. Her laugh takes up her entire face and he finds himself smiling along with her without even realizing it. Butch _does_ realize, and gives his arm a reassuring squeeze before excusing himself for some clearly made up reason. Sarge watches him go, and turns back to Emily with a sheepish smile.

“Butch says you're a doctor,” he says, after an awkward moment of trying to think of something to talk about. “What are you a doctor of?”

“So far, medicine, psychology, and chiropractics.” He stares. Her smile gets bigger, and there's a gleam in her eye. “But I'm thinking of going back to school and getting a degree in astrophysics. You can only cut up so many people before it gets boring!” Her smile grows, and she tilts her head again. “What about you? Butch says you're a physics teacher? That must be so fascinating.”

He laughs softly. “Yeah. Trying to get a bunch of teenagers to care about science. Exciting.”

“It sounds like it. What would you be doing if you weren't teaching, then?”

Sarge considers this for a moment, before shrugging. “Don't know, really. After I retired from active service I needed something to do... teaching seemed like a good idea so...” He shrugs again. “It's not as bad as I make out. Just frustrating.”

“Teenagers can be a handful,” she agrees. “I know mine is and I only see him on school breaks.”

“You've got a kid?” He perks up at that, though he doesn't notice. Emily does, though, and that gleam is back in her eyes.

“My cousin,” she says. “I've been taking care of him since his parents died. Which is not an easy task! I'm glad he goes to boarding school. I'm not sure we could stand to live together long-term. What about you? Kids?”

“Three. Two boys and a girl. They're a handful and a half!” He laughs. “Still trying to figure out this parenting thing. Nothing like I used to imagine.”

“Tell me about it! I studied psychology for years and none of it could have prepared me for being even a pseudo-parent.”

By the time Butch returns, their topic has moved on to the challenges of becoming a parent to a child in the middle of adolescence- Emily has only had custody of her cousin for a year and a half, and Sarge is approaching three years with Grif and Kai, four with Lopez. It's a bit of a relief, really. Butch has set him up with single mothers before, but they've always been women who either gave birth to their children, or adopted them as infants, and there always manages to be a disconnect between their perspectives because of it.

Butch joins the conversation when he returns, bringing in some of his insights with Tucker. Sarge catches his eyes over Emily's head and realizes that he intended this all along.

*

Emily, it turns out, is very interested in robotics. She and Sarge frequent many of the same discussion forums online; they discover that they once got into a long, drawn out argument about the current limits of artificial intelligences and how to overcome those limits. They're revisiting this argument now; Sarge firmly believes that AI can be made from scratch once humans have a deep enough understanding of neural pathways while Emily is in the camp that a living basis is needed to begin with.

Butch follows them through the museum, smiling and humming to himself as he is thoroughly ignored. He doesn't understand anything about robots or artificial intelligence, so the conversation is going over his head, but honestly, that's what he was hoping for. He's only here because meeting women casually, in groups, is just easier for Sarge.

*

By the time they stop for lunch, Butch is starting to feel like a third wheel, so he excuses himself. Sarge and Emily are in the middle of an argument about fuel sources and barely acknowledge him; he leaves with a wide grin on his face and a spring in his step. _Good_. Sarge deserves to be happy, and so does Emily. He knew they'd be good for one another.

*

“Lopez and I have been trying to get the jeep to run on solar energy, but it's not going too well.”

“Solar energy can be tricky to work with. I thought you said you preferred diesel, though?”

“I do! It's clearly the superior form of fuel. But the solar powered jeep is a fun experiment.”

She giggles, and he finds himself grinning. He likes when she laughs like that. He likes that he can make her laugh like that.

*

In the parking lot he walks her to her car and is suddenly hit by how much he doesn't want their date to be over yet. He rubs at the back of his neck, suddenly nervous, and reaches out to touch her shoulder. “You uh... maybe we could go out for ice cream sometime? I'd like to see you again. If that's okay.”

Her grin threatens to split her face in two.

*

It's a month and a half after that first date before she kisses him. Their latest date takes them to a firing range, since Emily doesn't have much experience with firearms but has always wanted to learn. For Sarge it's a good chance to show off; he admits this cheerily and she laughs and tugs him close for a chaste kiss that leaves his lips tingling.

They're the same height, he realizes, and kisses her again.

*

They've been dating for two months and he still hasn't told the kids about her. He hasn't even told them he's seeing anyone. He's sure they must have noticed that he goes out more, but they haven't said anything. Maybe they haven't noticed after all?

He doesn't know why he's not telling them. It's not like it's a huge secret.

*

They've been dating for two months and five days before anything sexual happens.

They're at Emily's place, watching a movie and just relaxing, and it's nice, this, curled on her couch together, trading little kisses and soft words of endearment. Then her hand trails down his chest to palm at his crotch and _oh_. He growls at the sudden pleasure and deepens the kiss, and next thing he knows she's straddling him and his hands are gripping her hips.

She grinds down on his lap and he knows it's supposed to be the beginning but all that happens is he comes in his pants all too soon, like a horny teenager all over again. He buries his face in her shoulder, embarrassed, but she just giggles and pulls his head back so she can kiss him.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly. “It's.. been awhile.”

“It's fine. You can make it up to me,” she reassures him with a smile, and guides his hand down, still kissing him.

The way she moves under his hands is beautiful and he loves the sounds she makes, the faces, and by the time he's gotten her off he's ready to go again.

Their second attempt goes a lot more smoothly.

*

When he comes home, far later than he'd intended, he finds Simmons curled up in Grif's bed with him. Not uncommon- they have so many impromptu sleepovers that Simmons keeps a change of clothes in Grif's dresser and a spare toothbrush in his bathroom- but he can smell the whiskey on them and their hands are pretty tightly clasped between them. He snorts. Bout time they figured it out.

He thinks of berating them for stealing his whiskey, thinks of waking them up and separating them, thinks of a hundred things that he _should_ do as a good parent, but he's still feeling good from his evening with Emily so he just smiles fondly and grabs Grif's blanket from the floor where they've kicked it off and throws it over them both. He'll deal with them in the morning.

*

Lopez graduates from high school a week later. Sarge sits on the field with the rest of the teachers and beams like the sun when the boy walks up to get his diploma. He might not be Lopez's real father, but he's know him most of his life and right now he couldn't be prouder of him.

*

The great thing about summer is that he doesn't have classes to teach at the moment. There's work to do around the farm- there's always work to do around the farm- but he has far more free time than during the school year. And with Grif always off in town with his friends and Lopez focused on fixing that broken down jeep of his, that means Sarge has plenty of time to spend with Emily without worrying about explaining where he is.

It's not that he's sneaking around- he's not. He just isn't ready yet to tell them about her.

Besides, he hasn't met her cousin yet either, even though he's home from school for the summer. So it's a mutual down-low.

*

Sarge doesn't realize how much he talks about his kids. He knows they're a common topic, but he hasn't yet realized that nearly every other topic is “Grif did this” and “Kai said that” and “Lopez is going there”. He doesn't realize that even when they're not the topic at hand, he somehow brings them up as an aside to that topic.

Emily notices. She notices _everything_ \- it's in her nature. She notices more than just that, though. She notices the way he says things. The way there's always an undercurrent of frustration when he talks about Grif, or the note of pride that rings underneath that. And the protective and hopeful way he talks about Kai, or the obvious pride when he talks about Lopez.

It's there when he talks about his students, too, even when he complains about them. He adores them.

Emily never wanted to be a mother- it's never been something she cared about. She's always been glad that her cousin is old enough and away at school long enough that he doesn't have to depend on her for emotional support because she's just not equipped to give it to him. But Sarge? Sarge was _born_ to be someone's father. When he didn't have that chance the typical way, he just went out and became everyone's dad anyway.

It's kind of sweet that he doesn't seem to realize it.

*

Summer draws to a close and a new school year begins, and Sarge is starting to get a little antsy about how he hasn't told the kids about Emily yet. The trouble is, at this point, he's left it so long that there's sure to be an explosion when he finally does tell them.

He keeps putting it off. Maybe they'll figure it out on their own.

*

The boy who tries to palm his wallet has the physique of a boy who has worked hard his entire life, but at the moment he looks underfed and ragged. Sarge holds his collar in a tight grip while he checks that everything is still in his wallet, then pockets it again and turns to the boy. He looks scared- pants-pissingly terrified, really- and the half-healed bruises down one arm are familiar enough to make his gut boil and twist in a mix of disgust and anger.

“What's your name, son?”

“D-Donut, sir. Franklin Donut.”

*

He knows he's left it too long when Emily accidentally meets Grif on his own. He rests his head against the porch railing and wonders how he managed to mess up this badly.

*

“Do you want to meet my kids?”

They're parked in the middle of a field, stargazing and eating ice cream in the bed of her truck. She turns to smile at him; she's got a dab of ice cream on the corner of her mouth and he can't resist leaning over to kiss it away, making her giggle. He pulls away and raises an eyebrow at her.

“Well? It's been nearly six months now. And you already met Grif and Simmons, so...” He trails off, and she shifts to lean back against him. It shows a remarkable amount of trust in him, he thinks: he's still got half his cone and it would be easy to accidentally get ice cream in her hair.

“I think I'd like that,” she says happily, then points up into the sky. “Look, a falling star! Well, not really. It's just some debris entering the atmosphere. But it's still very pretty.”

He laughs, and nuzzles her hair happily. He thinks maybe he's supposed to make a wish, what with the falling star and all, but in this moment, he can't think of anything he particularly wants.

Well, he can. But those things all seem so distant right now.

*

Later they make love to the sound of distant cows and wind blowing through grass, and there's ice cream in her hair and a galaxy reflected in her eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone is wondering when this verse takes place, I call it future-ish. By which I mean, it's more or less modern with some futuristic elements, because there are some aspects of the main verse I don't want to lose just because it's an au. Such as AI studies.


End file.
